Posts Tagged ‘census’

A Better Way to Get Census Data

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

The U.S. Census is one of the most useful tools for research and marketing because it tells you how many people fit specific demographic profiles and where they live.  It started out as a simple count of how many people live in each state in order to allocate congressional seats.  But it has since become a rich source of insight, with information about Americans’ age, family composition, work status, income, education, housing, and more.

While the Census provides basic tabulations and counts on its website, you can also query the data yourself to answer specific, customized questions that you are unable to find otherwise.  In fact, using this data is so easy that Versta no longer uses the Census’ rather difficult and ever-changing “fact finder” features.  We have downloaded the data along with a codebook, and use a statistics program to run specific queries and counts of anything we need. (more…)

The Walmart “Poll” of Chicago Residents

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

Mistakes to Avoid when Conducting a Public Relations Survey

Surveys and polls can be powerful tools to understand what people are thinking and doing, and they can provide good data for public relations efforts and community outreach.  Unfortunately they can also be gimmicks, which erodes trust in polling and in the organizations sponsoring them.

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